Dragon Vet
by Jynxisruler13
Summary: Hermione gets a job just after graduation as a dragon healer in Romania. After ending things with Ron she goes and falls for another Weasley while she works with the baby dragons.


**I own nothing.**

Hermione sat outside the office of Headmistress McGonagall. She and her two best friends went back to Hogwarts to complete their schooling and it was now nearing the graduation. To her left sat her boyfriend and friend Ronald Weasley, while her other friend, Harry Potter was inside the office with the professor. All seventh years had meetings with the Headmistress within the next three weeks to discuss future career choices based on the grades they all currently held and the grades on the NEWTs they had yet to receive due to the testing only just ending. Thus why 19 year old Hermione Granger was only now getting the chance to graduate and choose a career.

She and Ron had gotten together just after the war, but Hermione knew it wouldn't last much longer. She was getting sick of the constant fighting and her absolute dislike of quidditch, which seemed to be all he could talk about. Plus the fact that Ron had tried to talk her out of going to her meeting because 'she wouldn't need the job since she would be getting married and pregnant just after graduation', never mind the fact that he hadn't asked her to marry him and the fact that she didn't want children yet, or maybe even at all.

Harry exited the office and waved Hermione in. Her nerves continued to bother her. Harry would undoubtedly take Ron's side in the ending of the relationship seeing as how big a supporter he was of it. As she sat in front of the desk the Headmistress kindly informed her that she could get any job she wanted before handing her a pile of pamphlets about every single job opportunity possible in the wizarding world, with the ones she thought most likely on top. They were all ministry pamphlets. Hermione smiled and exited the office, waving Ron in on her way.

She needed to end things, and soon if the look he gave her pile was any indication of his feelings toward it. He rolled his eyes and shook his head in a sort of amused way, like he knew she wouldn't get a chance to accept any of the offers. That was another reason right there. Ron had insisted he would be a professional quidditch player or an Auror, but he had none of the qualifications or grades for either. Sighing, Hermione walked to the dormitories where she could get some peace and quiet from all the others in the castle. It took another two weeks before she finally got the courage to break things off with Ron, she went to the common room in search of him only to find Harry and Ron discussing _her_ future.

"Mum's really happy that we're getting married. Though she did tell me I would need to work for her to change her mind about getting a job. Man was she right."

"Maybe you should let her get a job; at least until she's had a kid then you could revisit the topic again..." Harry seemed unsure, but Hermione burst. Skipping into the room she made her presence known.

"'Mione! You ready for dinner? We've been waiting forever!" Ron exclaimed

"Actually I was wondering if I could speak to you in private for a moment before we go down? It will only take a moment." She assured him. Nodding he sent Harry down to get them a seat and wait for their arrival. "Ron, we're over. You don't understand that I need to work and be productive. You also just aren't the right person for me, quite honestly I don't love you and I never will." She blurted out, deciding to be blunt about things. Ron gaped and Hermione turned to go back to her dorm. She got there just in time to hear the eruption before the portrait slammed and she knew all of Hogwarts would hear about things soon.

Picking up the pamphlets, Hermione readied herself to finally look through them and send out applications to the interesting ones. Knowing the ones on the top of her stack were what were expected of her she picked the one from the bottom and held it in her hand. She stared at the page and read through the pamphlet a total of 12 times in the time frame of twenty minutes. Finally she nodded and placed the pamphlet on her bed, the only bed in her room, being Head Girl had its perks she thought as she heard the rest of her house enter from dinner.

Smirking to herself, Hermione conjured her patronus and sent it off as a way of application. Five minutes later a dragon patronus entered the room. It spoke in a voice Hermione hadn't heard in a little less than a year.

"Hey there Hermione; gotta admit I didn't think this would interest you as a job. I talked to my Head Dragon Healer and they're ecstatic to have received any application, let alone yours. If you want the job it's yours. Two months training and room and utilities are included. Be here in two days, I look forward to having you work for me." Hermione sent a patronus back to Charlie, thanking him explicitly for the job on the reserve.

He had become Deputy Head of the reserve shortly after the war, once he returned, because the head had decided to retire. He was even offered to be the Head Dragon Wrangler but declined due to the paperwork involved and it meaning less time spent with the dragons.

She let out a breath. It was done. She, Hermione Granger, had willingly decided to become a Veterinarian for dragons; with Charlie Weasley as her boss; in Romania; and she started in two days; which meant she had to leave the next day in order to clear out her parents house and sell it as well as pack everything up, meaning she would miss graduation.

Laughing hysterically, Hermione walked out of her dorm and down to the common room. She walked through that, pointedly ignoring all the stares she was receiving and the red head trying to talk to her. She marched out of the room and began to walk in the direction of the Headmistresses office. Everyone stared at her as she passed and Draco Malfoy was standing by the door to the office, having just finished giving a report that he was required to give as Head Boy. He looked at her strangely; they had become friends since being appointed Head Girl and Boy that year. He smirked.

"Finally lose your mind Granger?" He asked, his smirk never faltering.

"No, I just think I'm about to give our Headmistress a heart attack." She claimed as she sobered.

"Why?"

"I just decided on, applied for, and was accepted for a job..."

"So? That's not that bad, even I've done that."

"Really where?"

"It's in Romania, a position dealing with specialized research for potions that fight the effects of dark magic."

"That's great!"

"Shit, I forgot to tell McGonagall, mind if I join you?"

"Nope, let's go and do this." The duo entered the office and Draco informed the Headmistress on his achievement. She thanked him for the notification and handed him his diploma, seeing as how he would need to leave before graduation. It was now Hermione's turn.

"I'm afraid I will need my diploma as well. I will be leaving tomorrow morning, first thing. That way I can pack up my parent's house and put it on the market, also I need to pack my things and arrange a portkey. My job starts in two days time."

"What other facts do I get, and what is the title of your job?"

"Well, it's also in Romania; it has a two month training period... Oh, and I get to work with Charlie Weasley. As for the title, I am going to be a Dragon Healer. It was the pamphlet on the bottom of the pile and I thought it looked the most interesting. I didn't even bother to look at the rest of the options, just picked the job and sent a patronus to Charlie offering my application. He talked with his Head Healer and I was hired on the spot. Apparently not many people are applying so she agreed before she even heard my marks or my name." McGonagall looked ready to pass out and Draco was red in the face from trying to contain his laughter.

"Need some help with your house? I could come with and then we could just portkey out together, my job starts the same day as yours." He offered

"I would love the help, thank you Draco."

"No problem Granger."

"A Dragon Healer?" McGonagall breathed out

"Yes Professor." Hermione confirmed as she took her proffered diploma. "So, why don't we meet in the entrance hall around 9am tomorrow and leave from there?"

"Sounds good," Draco nodded. "We can go to your parent's house first, then to the ministry for the portkey, and then finish at the real estate office."

"We sleep at the house then leave the next morning for Romania, get you a place to stay and then we can explore the area since it will still be another day until we start work." The two nodded then turned and left the dumbfounded Headmistress in favor of their rooms. Plans made, and the next day carried out, Hermione was now at the main office of the dragon reserve waiting for Charlie to get back from his morning rounds. She hadn't waited longer than five minutes before Charlie Weasley and an older woman she didn't know entered the room with smiles.

Charlie had always been one of the shortest of the Weasley brood, but he was also the most muscular, and had tattoos. His hair also wasn't the bright red that the rest of the Weasley's shared but was darker and more of an auburn color than anything. Hermione stared at him for a few moments trying to rationalize that having a crush on him was not a good idea, before turning her attention the slim woman next to him. She was older and had dark brown hair streaked with grey held in a pony tail. Her eyes were kind and her arms had scars from years working with clawed creatures that were much bigger and more aggressive then her. She had a kind smile on her face as she looked at Hermione.

"Hey Hermione, this is your trainer and the head of the dragon healing department, mainly out of default seeing as how there are only the two of you now." Hermione's eyes widened momentarily before she smiled. "You guys only work with the babies though, it would be too dangerous to try and heal a full grown dragon, best to leave that to us wranglers if it's too serious. Anyways, I'll leave you two to introductions and such, gotta run. I'll meet you at your cabin later, I think me and you should have a talk about your job choice and the letters I've been getting from my family." Charlie winked before he turned and left.

"Hello I'm Matilda Gudrun, you may call me Mal if you wish, just about everyone does."

"Hello Mal, it's nice to meet you, I'm Hermione Granger."

"Okay Hermione, we have two months to train you, let's get started shall we?" Hermione nodded enthusiastically and she was then given a tour of the entire compound. She marveled at the dragons and cooed at the babies. She took note of what each building was and where her cabin was, as well as the layout of the healing room that she was going to be working in beside the baby's pen. After a long day she just wanted to sit back and relax but Charlie did indeed come knocking on her door just after his shift ended. The Dragon Healers were always on call and mainly worked rehabilitating the injured dragons, but the wranglers worked in shifts unless there was an emergency.

"Well, well, well if it isn't Hermione Granger, Dragon Healer."

"Well, well, well if it isn't Charlie Weasley, Dragon Wrangler." Hermione returned as she let the second eldest Weasley into her spacious cabin. They sat down and he asked her about her day before he finally ventured into the deeper conversation.

"So why this job and what's with all the letters?"

"Who sent the letters?"

"Answer the first part of my question first."

"McGonagall gave me a stack of pamphlets of every job I could get in the wizarding world in order from most likely to least likely... I started with the bottom of the pile and there it was. I spent 20 minutes deliberating before sending you my patronus."

"Really? This was the least likely? That seems like a little bit of a stretch."

"No kidding... so who sent you letters?"

"Mum, Ron, and Ginny,"

"Really?"

"Yeah, they said you broke up with Ron and told him you never did and never will love him."

"Sounds about right... I decided to be blunt. Do you know why the other four didn't send letters, or your Dad for that matter?"

"Dad never saw you two together in the long run, Bill and Percy just didn't understand why you stuck around so long, and the twins were a mix between the two." The two talked for a little while more as Charlie told some stories about the other people working on the reserve. Apparently there weren't that many working there as it was a small reserve that mainly held injured or rare breeds that couldn't survive in the wild due to the poaching possibilities. He finally left shortly after 7pm and went to his cabin six doors down from her own.

The two months passed very quickly for Hermione and soon enough she was working on her own without supervision. The first thing Mal did was take a vacation to Italy. Charlie took her out for drinks the night that her training ended and Draco met them at the pub. He still had 10 months of training left but congratulated her all the same. As time passed Charlie and Hermione grew closer and closer. By the time they met Draco to celebrate his training ending they were so close that people often mistook them as being in a relationship.

It was one month after Draco's promotion from trainee to researcher that Charlie decided to go see Hermione about a question he had. Walking in he heard Hermione muttering as she tried to heal a dragon that wouldn't sit still.

"Be a veterinarian for dragons they said, it'll be fun they said... whole lot of good that does me when I can't get my patient to stop squirming so I can get a clear view of his injury." Charlie couldn't help it anymore and chuckled, alerting Hermione to his presence. He knew she loved her job, no matter how much she complained.

"Need some help Mia?" She simply nodded and he walked over to hold the baby still as she finally got to heal her last patient of the day.

"So Charlie, what brings you to this wonderful place?" She asked as she let the small bundle of annoyance wander back into its pen with the others. Charlie went red and began to stutter slightly.

"I was, uh, I was just wondering i-if maybe, you might want to, um, I mean if you would..."

"Charlie, relax. It's me you're talking to, not an angry Hungarian Horntail." Hermione cut him off with a laugh.

"Willyougooutonadatewithmetonight?" He rushed out

"What?" Hermione asked, genuinely confused.

"Will you go out on a date with me tonight?" He let out a massive breath before taking an even bigger one in and holding it.

"Are you asking me to be your girlfriend if this date goes well?" Hermione asked

"Yes." Charlie squeaked, Hermione smiled and walked over to the man she'd grown so close to.

"I would love to, what time and where?" Charlie let out a massive breath and smiled at Hermione.

"In about an hour at my cabin? I will cook you a nice meal of whatever I can with what I have in my fridge."

"Sounds great, I just need to go home, shower, and change." Hermione grinned as she pointed to her messy robes from her day working with tiny injured dragons. Charlie nodded and left for his cabin, Hermione doing the same a few minutes later. That one date went well and turned into two, which turned into three, and so on. Before they knew it they had been dating a year and a half and living together in Charlie's larger cabin and going on double dates with Draco and his girlfriend. On Christmas Charlie would spend the morning with his parents in Britain before returning to Hermione for the night and the rest of the holidays. They had decided against telling the rest of the family about their relationship. Of course Bill knew that he was seeing someone, he just wasn't aware who.

One morning the two were woken up by an emergency siren going off. This indicated that all off duty patrons of the reserve and all occupied patrons had to make their way to the main offices for instruction. Quickly getting dressed the two left their cabin and ran to the main building. The rest of the reserve was all filing in and the Head Wrangler met them there.

"We've just been alerted to three fully grown, injured, dragons being brought in, all of which are unsettled and need care and a new place to be rehabilitated from their injuries. The fourth dragon coming in is still quite young and will be classified as a baby; it's injured as well and will need care. We only have two of you so it's going to be taxing, the injuries might take a while to heal. Split into four teams, one should be smaller than the rest as it will be with our two healers." Charlie ended up on a different team and the four groups marched off to meet their charges.

The baby was very injured and agitated when it arrived. After almost eight hours the dragon was healed enough to be released into an isolated pen. Hermione went home and met with Charlie who had only arrived moments before she had. They both flopped down onto the bed after shimmying out of their clothing, way too tired to get dressed again. Hermione noticed a new scar on Charlie's arm and traced it lightly, knowing it would still be sore. The two cuddled up to each other and fell asleep. Both had shifts later on in the day monitoring their dragon but that wasn't until late unless there was an emergency with it. When they woke up they went to the kitchen and ate before Charlie finally brought something up.

"So, Mia... I think we should tell my family about us." He stated; Hermione froze. His family still hated her quite a bit and she wasn't entirely sure how they would react. Not only that but none of them knew where she was because McGonagall refused to repeat just what Hermione had told her she was going to do for a job. "Look, I know what you're thinking, but just think about it. If we can get some time off I think we should tell them. If we wait to much longer than it will be an even bigger blow up and Bill won't stop pestering me about who I'm seeing."

"I think that is a terrible, horrible, incredibly foolish idea. Let's do it and see what happens. First you need to secure some time off for us though. Good luck convincing Mal to let me have some."

"I'm technically both of your bosses."

"Has that ever helped you when it comes to her?"

"No..." Charlie pouted slightly and the duo went back to bed to get some more sleep in preparation for their late shifts with the dragons. A week later and the three grown dragons were all fine to mingle with the other ones on the reserve and they no longer needed constant surveillance. The injured baby was still slightly snappish and had to be kept in isolation but he also needed no more constant supervision. Hermione entered the pen to check on the healing process one morning when the dragon made a lunge at her non threatening person. As she fell to the ground screaming and in pain her partner tried to get the dragon away from her. However he just refused to let up and let her go. More people came into the pen to try and help but it wasn't helping. Charlie burst into the pen and ran straight over to his downed girlfriend and the dragon. He lifted the mass off of Hermione and dragged it over to the opposite corner of the pen where another wrangler made a new pen and door into it in the same area. The second he could, Charlie let go of the baby and ran over to his girlfriend who was now being worked on by the medi-witches.

Hermione was let out of the med-bay a few hours later and released into Charlie's capable hands. She was, however, forced to take a two week healing vacation due to the lingering pain and tiredness resulting from some of the spells and potions used on her. Charlie refused to let her go that night. He had been terrified when he saw the state of her just after the dragon had attacked and even now she would still bear a new scar on her hip that would not be able to heal properly and entirely with magic. That was one of the main reasons for her healing vacation. She had a massive slash from front to back that had to be dressed and redressed constantly because of the effects magically healing it beyond what was already done would've resulted in.

"So, I got two weeks off, does this mean we can go and tell my family about us now? You said we could when I got us both time enough off." Charlie reminded her the next morning as he delivered her breakfast in bed. She would have some trouble getting around for the next year or so due to the severity of her injuries, she had a cane already but it would not be used unless there was no other options until she went back to work.

"Fine, but you get to explain my snazzy new limb to the others." She sighed, looking at the cane with mild contempt.

"Hey, relax. You only need to use the cane for a year at the most and then you'll be back to normal. Now what say you we redress your hip and I send a message to my mother informing her of our pending arrival?"

"Okay, you get to pack both of our bags though." Charlie simply smiled and nodded before leaving the room to send the message through the floo and grab the things he needed to redress the wound. When he took off the medi-witch's handiwork on his girlfriend's hip he paused to look at Hermione.

"Do you go looking for life threatening trouble that could leave you in the hospital or does it come looking for you?" He sighed as he began to redress the wound in an almost as professional manner as the professionals, if you didn't count the small kisses he left just above the line where the gauze stopped covering her skin.

"I don't go looking for trouble, but I do enjoy befriending it." Hermione was grinning cheekily when Charlie resumed his earlier position beside her in the bed.

"We leave tomorrow morning around 11am and arrive at the Burrow at around 9am or so. I will pack our stuff after you finally concede and go back to sleep. You need plenty of rest after the ordeal you've had recently." Hermione nodded and cuddled up to her boyfriend's side, falling asleep very quickly. Charlie merely smiled and got up to pack.

"Here we are." Charlie said with a grin in Hermione's direction.

"Indeed." Hermione intoned nervously.

"So... you ready to do this?" The duo were standing just outside the wards of the Burrow. There was no doubt that some of the family would receive the news badly, but Charlie was forever optimistic about things. Hermione was just plain nervous. They'd come later than they had planned due to Hermione sleeping and being in too much pain to apparate. They'd arrived just in time for dinner. Charlie grabbed her hand and walked them to the tilted house while Hermione leaned heavily on him. Her walking wasn't in the best form at the moment due to her injuries and the pain was shocking through her system. Her cane was in the bag but she refused to use it for the time being.

When they reached the door, Charlie knocked and they heard the noise from inside stop instantly. Molly opened the door and gasped at seeing her second oldest son. She hadn't seen Hermione yet.

"Oh, Charlie, both you and Bill visiting at the same time! Did you two plan this or something?"

"Yeah, we did in a way. Bill was pestering me to meet the girl I'm seeing and when I mentioned bringing her today I guess he decided to come to meet her."

"A girl?!" Molly seemed ecstatic and Charlie could see all the others in the room snickering or looking on curiously. "Where is she?"

"Behind me. I'm afraid that she was injured recently and we both got some time off because of it. She works at the reserve with me. We were planning on coming around 9am but she was in a bit too much pain when she woke up."

"Are you telling me you already live with her?"

"Yes..."

"Are you married yet? So help me if you are and didn't tell me, but you know better than to live with a girl out of wedlock."

"You know we can all do math right? We know you were pregnant with Bill before you got married."

"Just get in here so I can meet this lady." Molly took her seat at the table again and everyone watched on as Charlie turned around to collect his girlfriend. Looking at Hermione he gave her a grin and offered her his hand. She took it and leaned heavily on him. They entered the room to the sound of many gasps, none of them from the girl in immense pain. There were two seats open between Bill and Percy. Charlie led Hermione into the room and carefully helped her sit beside Bill as he was the only one with a massive smile on his face, and he took the seat beside Percy and her.

"HER!" Ron exploded, his face was almost as red as his hair and Molly and Ginny were quickly growing matching expressions.

"Hey Percy, this means you owe me 5 gallons!" Bill exclaimed as Percy gave Charlie a murderous glare.

"You couldn't have waited another week could you? He would've owed me triple that!"

"You two knew?" Hermione asked in shock.

"I saw the paperwork for the job promotion to full time when I was at their ministry for work. I commented on it to Bill and he asked me how long I thought it would take for the two of you to get together... it may have snowballed from there." Percy explained as he passed the gallons to his older brother.

"Yeah, then when Charlie said he was seeing someone we bet again only for how long it would take Charlie to tell us who." Bill finished.

"Huh..." Charlie stated "What's the next bet?"

"Well we can't do when they will move in together, how about when he finally proposes?" Bill asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Wait, what? Who said anything about marriage?" Charlie spluttered

"You're on. I'm going to say 5 sickles for two months from now." Percy stated.

"Interesting play... same amount, but for three months from now, just because of Charlie's expression."

"Do I get to join?" Hermione asked meekly, the two brothers nodded and she smirked. "I say one month from now we will be engaged. I bet you 3 gallons."

"Do you know something I don't?" Charlie asked her with a smirk

"Yes, I know a lot of things you don't. Anything you want to know in particular?"

"What makes you think I will ask that soon?"

"Well, your reaction did give off a vibe of fear, but your current reaction states that it was more towards the wording and not the actual act. You thought they ruined the surprise, which I guess they did, but you know I don't like surprises that much anymore. Even less so now since Marlin had his way with me the other day, temperamental little douche bag."

"Well, I guess that means I get to decide who will win this bet."

"Let me win and I will buy you something shiny, or maybe you can put it in your savings for the pygmy dragons you want, which I am all for by the way." Charlie smirked and whispered something in Hermione's ear, everyone at the table was stunned by the two's casual conversation and ease with one another. "I'm changing my bet; I think it will be in the space of the next few days." Hermione commented.

"Yeah, okay, like that will happen." Bill stated, Charlie smirked at the three betters as they shook hands before the four started to eat while everyone slowly got over their shock. Ron, Molly, and Ginny were all pissed, but they knew better than to say anything in fear of driving Charlie off since it was obviously too late to change his mind if the self proclaimed bachelor for life was thinking about marriage. And so they finished dinner and four days later Hermione and Charlie announced their engagement and received 10 gallons from the two other betters, which did indeed go to the purchase of two darling little pygmy dragons.


End file.
